President Trump Issues Revised Executive Order Suspending Admission for Certain Foreign Nationals from Six Designated Countries

Monday, March 6, 2017

On March 6, 2017, President Trump signed a revised Executive Order, Protecting The Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into The United States, that suspends admission to the United States for certain foreign nationals from the following six designated countries for 90 days: Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. Iraq is no longer included in the list of designated countries as it had been in the original executive order (EO). The 90-day period of suspension may be extended, and the order establishes a process by which other countries can be added to the list of designated countries. The EO will go into effect on March 16, 2017, at 12:01 a.m. and rescinds the prior order once effective.

Who Is Affected?

Foreign nationals from the six designated countries who are outside the United States and either do not have a currently valid visa or did not hold a valid visa on January 27, 2017 will not be able to travel or request admission to the United States.

The order also suspends refugee admissions and adjudication of requests for refugee status from all nationals of all countries for a period of 120 days from the effective date of the order. Refugee applicants who were formally scheduled for transit prior to the March 16, 2017, effective date are allowed to travel and request admission to the United States. The order limits the total number of refugees able to be admitted to the United States for fiscal year (FY) 2017 to 50,000.

Who is Exempt?

At this time, the EO only limits the ability to request admission to the United States to the narrow category of foreign nationals described above. The following foreign nationals remain eligible to request admission to the United States:

foreign nationals from one of the six designated countries who hold a currently valid visa;

foreign nationals from one of the six designated countries who held a valid visa on January 27, 2017 (the order instructs that foreign nationals whose visa was revoked or marked canceled based on the prior version of this Executive Order are entitled to request a travel document that confirms they are permitted to travel to the United States and request admission);

lawful permanent residents;

foreign nationals who are admitted or paroled into the United States on the effective date of this order;

foreign nations who hold a document other than a visa that is valid on the effective date of the EO or is issued after the EO that permits travel and the ability to request admission to the United States, including advance parole documents;

a dual national of a designated and non-designated country traveling on a passport from a non-designated country;

foreign nationals from the six designated countries who apply for diplomatic or diplomatic-type visas, North Atlantic Treaty Organization visas, C-2 visas for travel to the United Nations, or G-1, G-2, G-3, or G-4 visas; and

any foreign national granted asylum; any refugee already admitted to the United States; and individuals granted withholding of removal, advance parole, or protection under the Convention Against Torture.

Is a Waiver Available?

The EO permits a foreign national from a designated country whose admission is suspended to apply for a waiver of the suspension. Waivers are granted at the discretion of the U.S. Department of State Consular Officer and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), on a case-by-case basis, for a foreign national who has demonstrated to the consular officer or CBP officer's satisfaction that denying entry during the suspension period would cause undue hardship and that his or her entry would not pose a threat to national security and would be in the national interest. Any waiver issued by a consular officer as part of the visa issuance process will be effective both for the issuance of a visa and any subsequent entry on that visa.

Suspension of Visa Interview Waiver Program

In addition to the temporary admission ban, the executive order directs the State Department to suspend the Visa Interview Waiver program that had previously been available for renewing visas at certain U.S. consulates. As such, foreign nationals from countries not listed above—and who need to renew their visas if traveling abroad—should expect considerably longer wait times for appointments at these consulates, and any travel plans should take into account additional processing times for visa issuance.

Ms. Morrison provides comprehensive business immigration representation to Fortune 500 companies with an emphasis on technology, semiconductor, financial, and life science industries. Ms. Morrison’s immigration practice is national in scope, and is distinguished by her emphasis on delivering clients with end-to-end, compliance driven, strategic program management aimed at continually improving clients’ immigration programs and obtaining positive results while increasing the overall user experience for corporate stakeholders and foreign national employees.

Marissa Cwik is an Associate in the Raleigh office of Ogletree Deakins. Marissa assists corporate clients with hiring and retaining foreign national workers. She has expertise with nonimmigrant filings presented to the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Department of Labor, including E, H, J-1, L, O, P, and TN nonimmigrant petitions. She is also experienced in supporting corporate clients with sponsoring foreign national employees for permanent residency, including first preference EB-1 petitions for persons of extraordinary ability, outstanding professors and researchers, and multinational managers or executives; second preference EB-2 petitions requiring the labor certification application process, exceptional ability, and national interest waiver petitions; and third preference EB-3 sponsorship.

Mr. Coffey is an attorney in the Immigration Practice Group of Ogletree's Raleigh office. He has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the International and Immigration Law Section of the Atlanta Bar Association, and served as Chair of the Board in 2011. He has authored over 35 immigration law related publications. Mr. Coffey's practice focuses exclusively on business immigration; he advises large multinational companies on all aspects of employment-based immigration as well as I-9 compliance and E-Verify.

Jacob D. Cherry is an immigration attorney in the Atlanta office. His practice is focused on employment-based immigration and worksite compliance matters.

Jacob works with multinational organizations to secure immigration benefits for their employees and provide guidance on immigration-related compliance matters. Jacob also counsels and advises employers on the implementation of immigration programs that align with specific hiring, employee retention, and global mobility goals, and he partners with companies to develop immigration strategies to...

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